


Choice

by piperisntuselessyouare



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Dark!Percy, F/M, honestly this hurts me i havent written angst in so long lol, post- Giant War, rosegoldpipercy on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 13:50:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7174346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piperisntuselessyouare/pseuds/piperisntuselessyouare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They are on different sides of the war.</p><p>She lost him.</p><p>Loving his enemy would only be his Achilles heel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choice

**Author's Note:**

> oh my gosh this hurts me so bad

Percy leaned on the fence, the breeze sweeping his hair from his eyes. Annabeth couldn't tell why he looked different. He still looked like Percy, same eyes that she fell in love with. Same nose and cheeks, but his smirk wasn't present anymore. He looked frustrated.

“When did it change?” Annabeth asked quietly, highway behind her. Percy let out a breath, dropping his head.

“When you made the choice.” His volume matched hers, as if he didn't dare raise his voice at her. Percy’s tone was dry, full of resentment, and most of all, pain.

Annabeth spent the next moments memorizing his face. It may as well have been the last time they would see each other outside of battle. The pain in her heart made her throat go dry.

He was right, she made her choice. She chose the gods and Camp over him. The gods hadn't done enough for her to deserve her defense, but she couldn't leave what she knew. Annabeth wanted it to be how it used to be. The sweet smiles and bad jokes, how they fell asleep in the stables of the Argo II. Those memories were beautiful in blinding color, but made her chest hollow with nostalgia.

Percy had the courage to rebel, and he had a lot of people on his side. Annabeth would be with him, but she made her choice. No going back now, Percy had told her that. How she regret making the choice she had, but it was done.

“I know you, Seaweed Brain.” Annabeth couldn't help but sound like she was begging. Percy drew back at her nickname for him, “Percy, this isn't you.” She stepped closer to the fence, the metal pushing into her stomach.

Percy simply looked at her, and Annabeth couldn't tell if he was hurt or broken. His face had hardened since she saw him last, he looked like a leader, a king. She admired it, couldn't help but acknowledge how attractive it was. Despite this, she knew she wouldn't get him back. One of them would die, and things would never be the same. Annabeth could’ve been his queen, if she’d made a different choice.

“Don't look at me like you looked at Luke. I deserve more than that.” Percy snapped, putting walls up, the words were a sharp biting poison.

His words drove a knife into her chest, bringing up bad memories. It took years before Annabeth had realized just how manipulative Luke was to her, why he seemed good in her eyes.

“Percy, don't compare yourself to him. You didn't do what he did...” Annabeth’s argument dwindled as she reached out for his hand.

It didn’t matter to her that her defense was grasping at straws. She was desperate for his touch again. The hollowness in her heart was because she pushed him away. Annabeth always chose what she knew over something new. Change scared her, but now she lost Percy. Knowing that he was gone was terrifying and bitter.

Percy looked down, bangs covering his eyes as his fingers entwined with hers.

“I'm not good anymore, Annabeth.” Percy whispered, and Annabeth’s breath hitched.

“You are...” Annabeth begged, her heart breaking in two.

She couldn't lose him this time, not again. Her head shook violently, gripping his hand tighter. The wind blew past them, cars passing behind Annabeth. Percy looked at her, memorizing her face. He pressed his forehead to a cross in the fence. Annabeth met his forehead with hers, the fence separating them.

“I still love you.” His voice broke.

Annabeth lost her composure, tears fell down her face and her shoulders shook.

“I'll always love you.” Her words were clouded by shaky breaths.

They stood together, trying to get back those fleeting moments of being happy and in love. Their lips met between a hole on the fence. The kiss was full of regret and apologies, wishes and goodbyes. Love and an ache to be together again.

Percy pulled away first, letting go of Annabeth’s hand. Her skin felt cold without him, and she sucked in a breath. It was as though her skin knew he left her, trying to remember the feeling of the warmth he carried with him. The brightness and race of Annabeth’s heartbeat every time he smiled at her.

“Percy..” She started, but he was running his hands through his hair already. He was leaving soon. His thumb went from his jaw to swipe across his bottom lip as he turn around. Annabeth smacked the fence, a loud rattle echoing after Percy’s steps.

“Goodbye, Annabeth.” Percy said as he walked.

Annabeth kept hitting the fence, wanting him to turn around.

“Percy!” She yelled after him, her voice shattering and tears leaving her eyes again.

Annabeth’s love, ex-boyfriend, was too far gone. Their future was stomped on and thrown to the wolves, every late-night conversation lost in the wind. Each breath hit her harder than the last. Every exhale left her lonelier, yearning for him to turn around and tell her he was kidding. The pain in her sternum urging her to get him to turn back. No matter how much Annabeth willed him to turn and tell her she could join him, be his queen and parter, Percy kept walking. The tears were hot as they poured down her cheeks, dropping from her chin onto the ground. Annabeth gripped the fence tightly, the chill of the metal biting into her hands. She open-palm slammed her hands against the fence. Each slap was harder, metal making her hands sting as they began to cut her hands.

She lost him.

//

Percy forced himself to walk until he couldn’t hear Annabeth anymore. Each cry she made tore his heart. His fingernails dung into his palms to keep him from yelling back out to her. It took every ounce of willpower he had saved up to keep from running back to her. It didn’t matter what he was doing in the war. The fact they were on different sides didn’t stop his heart from needing her. Percy burned to hold her again. When they danced before finding the DiAngelo siblings.

His brain buzzed, still feeling her on his lips. Every major memory flashed before his eyes. When he met her, her curls above him as she shoved pudding back into his mouth. When he saved her from the Sirens. Her eyes, when they kissed the first time. The stupid pickup line of a kiss for good luck, tradition. ‘Come back alive, Seaweed brain’.

The way her hair danced haphazardly in the wind. How her eyes tore him down and built him up simultaneously. Every time they kissed, their first time. Percy’s breath shook, and he shut his eyes tightly, trying to keep himself from crying. One of his favorite memories of her- when he proposed- burned behind his eyes. How her hair was free of frizz, laying on her shoulders. Surprised that she knew how to do makeup the way so did. Percy had seen her in dresses times before that night, but she looked like a goddess. He couldn’t believe that she didn’t have ichor in her veins. The happiness across her face when he dropped to his knee and opened the ring box.

Percy had noticed she still wore the engagement ring. He felt another stab to his heart at the realization. She still loved him, and it made everything more torturous.

They had sworn to never do this, never be on opposing sides. Yet, there they were, fighting each other. He longed for this war to end, both of them to be safe and together. Though, he knew that would never happen. One of them would die.

“Kill me.” He found himself yelling, looking towards the sky, “Just do it, you know you’ve wanted to!”

Percy angrily tore Riptide from his pocket, chucking it as far as he could. It didn’t matter that it would come back to him. The sky rumbled, hesitating.

“I’m unarmed, Zeus! Just! Do it!” He screamed, throwing is arms out to leave him defenseless. The clouds above him cleared, and Percy stood. His chest heaved, feeling Riptide replace in his pocket.

His chin quivered, finally crying. “Why did I do this?” He asked himself, his knees buckling. Percy forced himself to sit on the ground.

The anger in his chest, the anguish, turned to focus. He needed to get his head straight, to fix this. He made his choice, Annabeth made hers. However much it hurt him to see her on the other side of the fence, planning how to take him down, it didn’t matter. The facts were that he was fighting another army, and that was all. The sooner he got use to that fact, the easier the whole ordeal would be.

Loving his enemy would only be his Achilles heel.


End file.
